Japanese coolant; are they all the same?

[rondg]

so here are the MSDS for honda type2, toyota pink, and suzuki blue. all made by one company CCI. then i found out that CCI sells these coolants directly under the very imaginative brand name Genuine Chemistry (lol)

https://genuine-chemistry.com/products/coolants/


all are phosphated-OAT with no silicates, no 2eha, no nitrites, amines, borate. apparently they're ALL THE SAME

 

[Klutch9]

I’ve heard that Kia has a pink coolant with 2eha and one without.

 

[VolkswagenFox21]

In the last few years Subaru changed their formula which includes 2eha.

 

[FowVay]

I certainly can't speak for all of the brands on the market but I have searched for my Japanese vehicles and my one European vehicle and have drawn a fairly well educated conclusion.

I phoned Ashland Chemical and asked about the Zerex Asian blue and red coolants and was told that they are exactly the same product with diffent colored dyes to accomodate the requests of the OEMs. My Nissan wants blue and my Toyota wants red. I like the looks of the blue coolant so that's what I use.

My Kawsasaki motorcycle uses a product that has 2-EHA in it so at first drain interval I replaced the Kawasaki green coolant with Zerex Asian blue coolant. That was 10 years ago and there's been one coolant change since and all is looking perfect and brand new.

My old BMW uses blue G48 coolant which contains 2-EHA which I don't like but the vehicle is old and I doubt I'll do too many more coolant changes on it. If I were to change it over I'd use the Asian blue. For what it's worth, the plastic cooling system components have all failed exactly one time over the 26 years I've owned the thing. Whether that's related to the 2-EHA or just cheap BMW components remains to be seen. The E46 was known to have cooling system issues and I've been really fortunate with the reliablility of this thing.

And lastly, my old John Deere with a water cooled Kawasaki engine is running some old G12++ Volkswagen coolant that I had left over. The radiator has brass tanks on the side and they're not as shiny and new looking as I'd like but the aluminum engine seems to be in perfect shape. The mower is 30 years old so I really can't ask for much more. It's just experimenting and playing around from here on out.

 

[ArrestMeRedZ]

I'd be interested if Mazda falls into the same boat as the Suzuki/Honda/Toyota examples above. It's listed as 10 year fluid (for the first change).

 

[rondg]

In the last few years Subaru changed their formula which includes 2eha.

I’ve heard that Kia has a pink coolant with 2eha and one without.

if i'm not mistaken 2eha is a cheaper inhibitor so its use may be due to cost reasons. anyway the msds i found reads just like the others. same 5% organic/inorganic from CCI

 

[Coolant Kid]

Subaru formerly used CCI for their OEM coolant. Their current supplier is Prestone and it is the same as Asian blue formula (which is Dexclone dyed blue). Just go on Amazon and search for "Subaru OEM coolant" and you'll see the newest stuff. Look at the image of the back of the bottle, you'll see the ingredients listed.

 

[Snagglefoot]

For what is worth all the Prestone colors for foreign and domestic coolants contain 2EHA. Fear it you like but it’s all marketing now.

 

[rondg]

mitsubishi coolant is CCI as well

 

[nthach]

Yea, I think 2-EHA and sebacic acid(sodium neodecoanate) are interchangeable. I’ll avoid 2-EHA as much as as I can since it is aggressive towards silicone, and Toyota loves using RTV instead of a formed FKM/Viton gasket.

But, I have Prestone in an older Toyota van, the valley plate was resealed and I used Toyota’s super duper ThreeBond 1282B RTV which claims resistance to their pink SLLC coolant. No leaks so far. It’s been almost 5 years since the repair was made. In hindsight, Permatex Optimum Gray or Right Stuff Gray would have also worked, they claim Dex-Cool resistance for Optimum.